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Carpenter ants

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English

Camponotus spp.

Carpenter ant (Camponotus sp), worker

Photo: René Limoges

Carpenter ant (Camponotus sp), worker

Photo: Guillaume Dury

Tabs group

Description

Carpenter ants are black, tinged with red or brown depending on the species. Males are 9 to 10 mm long, with small heads and two pairs of wings. Females are either queens or workers. Future queens have wings.

The queen is usually much larger than the workers, with a well-developed abdomen.

Workers are from 6 to 13 mm long. Their appearance differs depending on their role: nurses, scouts, soldiers, etc.

Life cycle

Mating takes place in the spring. Each young queen mates with a single male, with copulation taking place in flight. The queen then sheds her wings and looks for a place to found a colony, e.g. in a tree trunk, a large stump or a piece of wood. She lays the first brood of workers and tends to them. Once they hatch, the workers take charge of all tasks in the nest, except for laying eggs, which remains the queen’s job.

The larvae look like small white worms. There are four larval stages, and then the insect weaves a cocoon and turns into a prepupa, an immobile intermediate form. A few days later it metamorphoses into a pupa, resembling the future adult but white and immobile. After a few more days, the adult emerges and takes on its normal colouring.

A colony takes three to six years to become well established, at which time it will hold 2,000 or more workers. As of this point, the queen produces males and future queens at the end of every summer.

In May, all the winged ants leave the nest and take flight. The males die soon after mating and future queens begin looking for an appropriate place for a colony.

Geographic distribution

They are found throughout Quebec, up to the tree line. Two species are common east of the Rockies in Canada. In the United States, they live in forests in the northeast and northwest.

French name

Fourmis charpentières (fourmis gâte-bois, camponotes)

Scientific name

Camponotus spp.

English name

Carpenter ants (black ants, big black ants)

Class

Insecta

Order

Hymenoptera

Family

Formicidae

Habitat/Diet

Habitat

Carpenter ants live in damp or rotting wood. Their natural habitat is the forest, but some may make nests in or near houses.

Diet

Interesting facts

Unlike termites, these ants do not actually eat wood, as they are incapable of digesting cellulose. They make galleries in the wood simply for their nests.

In homes they may attack healthy wood, especially when they are expanding their nests. An exterminator must be called in if there is an infestation in a house. In spring or summer, however, ants seeking food may be found inside a home without actually nesting there.

Ecological roles

Carpenter ants are a source of food for various insectivorous birds. Bears attack their nests to eat their larvae and pupae.

They play an important role in decomposing trees, and stir up the soil as they tunnel into it